About

Visage (Psychological horror game)

CA$ 120,129

pledged of CA$ 35,000 goal

3,214

backers

Trailer

The trailer is best seen on YouTube, go take a look at the HD version right here.

Environment

The game will be set inside a huge house in which terrible things have happened. You’ll wander through the gloomy corridors, explore every dead room, and get lost in endless mazes, your head filling with memories of the dead families that once lived in this very home. This twisted environment, void of any life other than yours, will take you to places you couldn't even bear imagining.

Screenshots

Storyline

Where and when?The game takes place in a secluded town in the 1980s. The house you are in has been there for centuries, and its foundations never seem to decay. Dozens of families have lived here. Many of them died brutally, while others lived their lives placidly in their beloved home. Is there something triggering inevitable deaths, or is it pure coincidence?

How?In Visage, you will be shown and will relive fragments of history that will send chills down your spine. Each of these fragments will drag you closer to what’s behind the dark history of this place. You will witness, firsthand, how people died in this horrible house. Each death has its visage. Will you dare look into its eyes?

Who and why?As you uncover the truth, you’ll soon learn that… something doesn’t want you to.

The vision behind the game

Playing with normality

The game is going to mess with your mind in such a believably realistic house that when you stop playing, you'll probably fear your own peaceful house. You'll feel that even though everything around you is brightly lit and perfectly normal, something could very well be wrong.

True terror

Visage is a psychological horror game. This means that it's not the typical jump-scare fest we see these days. (It’s not that we don't like these types of games. We do. But we also wish there were more horror games that try to generate fear primarily through atmosphere and by getting inside your head.) You can expect to feel true terror created by a very dark, realistic atmosphere and the presence of entities you wish you’d never seen.

What is safe?

The game will also take you to places so twisted that you'll feel like coming back to the house is actually a good idea.

The "well-written, scary" gameplay

DefenselessInside the house, you are defenseless; no weapons could save you from the dreadful entities stalking you from the next corner, the next door, or underneath your feet. You’ll be able to pick up key elements, interact with the environment, and search for things that may help you escape this nightmare or pull you deeper into it.

Dark entitiesThe families that died in the house will haunt you and leave you restless. They’ll follow your every move, watch you from every corner, play tricks with your mind, and try to attack you. Why do they haunt you? What have you done? This you will have to find out on your own.

DeathDying will be part of the game. You’ll need to avoid terror at all costs, as dark entities are attracted to it. Maintaining your mind as sane as possible will keep you from joining the ranks of the dead. Doing so will not be easy, and you'll have to figure out ways on your own to avoid going insane. There are no tutorials on how to survive such atrocities.

The "concrete" gameplay

The influencesThe core gameplay is going to be a blend of the following styles, introduced by groundbreaking developers, that have helped shape the history of horror games:

The good ol' “point-and-click" horror game, like Phantasmagoria.
Wander through rooms in search of items in relation with the story to unlock new passages.

The innovative “search-everything-everywhere” approach, with active physics, that influenced so many games since Frictional Games' Penumbra.

The mind-blowing atmosphere and challengingly intricate stories from psychological horror games that has been shaped by the Silent Hill series.

And the “real-life horror simulator” from P.T. that we will expand to a much, much deeper level.

Core gameplayMore concretely, you'll be able to do the following and more:

Pick up key elements and interact with them (e.g., pick up a videotape and insert it in the VHS player)

Search everything (e.g., drawers)

Interact with the environment (e.g., turn the lights on or off)

Manage your "stress" (you will learn its effects yourself)

Interact with the dark entities (we won't spoil anything)

Open doors "Amnesia-style" (you push the door yourself... SLOWLY, because you aren't sure you want to see what's behind it, especially with VR)

In short, you’ll be able to do exactly what you should be able to do in a real haunted house (except try to punch a ghost in the face and flip the tables).

The sounds

Quality soundsTo bring you a truly terrifying experience in Visage, we’re strongly focused on atmosphere and realism. We’re building a large bank of high-quality ambient sounds and background noises, all of which will be recorded with the utmost attention to detail.

MusicMany of the best video games also have memorable soundtracks with distinctive themes. Music plays a critical role in video games, creating textures, adding flavor, establishing mood and momentum and character. A meaningful soundtrack can be especially important in horror games, where the music and ambient soundscapes help create the uneasy atmosphere a horror game needs.

So what should you expect from the Visage soundtrack? A haunting, atmospheric score with original compositions that span the world of the game, from plaintive and wandering to menacing and dissonant. Take a listen, with these preview samples:

Melancholy

In Darkness

Moanings

Features

Visage is the first horror game in which most of the events are randomly activated throughout the game. Each playthrough will be greatly different.

The choices you make will lead to different endings.

Virtual Reality will be supported.

You’ll be immersed in a cutting-edge 3D environment, thanks to Unreal Engine 4.

It will be available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, provided we reach those funding goals.

Rewards disclaimer

* If you’re choosing a reward that is subject to approval, please read the following. We're just making things clear to prevent unnecessary problems. Keep in mind that we're really open-minded. Submission refusal would be quite surprising.

As a backer, by submitting images, concepts, musical compositions, or other creative work (“Creative”) for consideration for inclusion in Visage as a Kickstarter reward, you certify that all such Creative is original work created by you and/or to which you have ownership rights. Notwithstanding the offer to include submitted Creative in Visage as a Kickstarter reward for qualifying pledge levels, SadSquare Studio (hereafter referred to as “we,” “our,” or “us”) will not use any Creative in Visage that is deemed to be an infringement on a third party’s copyright, trademark, or other protected ownership; nor will we use any Creative that is deemed to be illegal, offensive (e.g., hate speech), pornographic, or otherwise unsuitable for our conception of Visage, as determined solely by us. The foregoing is not intended as an exhaustive list of exclusion reasons. We reserve the right to reject any submitted Creative for any reason, at our sole discretion.

You understand and agree that such rejection of any submitted Creative shall not entitle you to a return of your qualifying pledge amount, either in whole or in part. However, in the event of such rejection, we will make a good-faith effort to contact you and work with you to determine if you have alternative original Creative that may be able to be included in Visage instead, although we make no guarantees that alternative Creative will be approved in any or all cases.

Every dollar received from this Kickstarter campaign, other than what goes toward our expected fees, will be used for game development and for making Visage as great as possible.

The breakdown

50% on environment and game events

20% on 3D character modeling

10% on gameplay mechanics

8% on sounds

2% on localisation

10% on expected fees

Other mentions

Jarek KubickiJarek Kubicki is an artist, photographer, and award-winning web designer and the founder of the Insania Evidens graphic design studio. He’s generously given us permission to use some of his work in the game — surreal paintings that fit and enhance the world of Visage.

Why Kickstarter?

FreedomAt this point, the reasons why an indie company like us chooses a Kickstarter campaign over a publisher of some sort should be familiar and fairly obvious: We get to keep our artistic freedom, and we're not bound by corporate contracts. Going this route doesn't exclude the possibility of us taking on a publisher after the Kickstarter campaign, if we see a use for it.

Be part of the gameBeyond an artistic independence, Kickstarter also offers us something more: It gives our fans the ability to be part of the development of Visage through the rewards section and through the campaign itself. It also helps us better understand what people actually want and expect from our game. This chance to get input from the community and creative contributions from supporters of the game is a huge part of what makes Kickstarter really attractive to us ;).

Risks and challenges

Thanks to Unreal Engine 4, we don’t anticipate any significant technical challenges in building the actual game mechanics and environments. Epic Games is awesome!

That said, it may prove to be a challenge to actually finish the game in 2016. As of right now, we think it's doable. But we’re new to the game development industry, and we don’t want to say there’s no possibility of tie-ups or complications that we haven’t anticipated. So there’s always a potential for some delays in our projected timeline — we want to be completely upfront and transparent about this.

The biggest challenge will be to make this game truly terrifying for a good majority of the people who will play it. Creating a true feeling of fear is not an easy job, especially since we won’t be relying heavily on jump scares. (There will be some, but not many.) Psychological horror is a very tricky genre ;).

Support

Select this reward

Pledge CA$ 5 or more
About $4

"We love you" package

+ You have our sincere gratitude, and you're now part of the band of people who helped some weirdos make a game about dead families :D…
! Cough cough. We mean, help visionaries combine art, horror and innovative ideas into building a world that will leave you both troubled and amazed ;).

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 20 or more
About $14

"You get the game (console)" package

+ You get a digital console version of the game (your choice of PS4 or Xbox One).

Note: If you choose this package, you will receive a digital console version only. You will not receive a Steam key. If Visage is successfully funded but we don't reach the stretch goal for a console release ($45,000), you will receive a Steam key instead. If you choose a higher reward, you will get to choose between the PC and console version.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 750 or more
About $526

"Your face in the game" package

+ Everything from the "We love you" package to the "Goodies" package

+ You become a part of Visage's “dead families”. Your face (a real photo) will be used as a portrait in a “special room” where players will be able to see dead family members from throughout the house's history. Your name will be written under the portrait and you will appear in the credits as a “Dead family member”.

Warning: Two versions of your photo will be used, one probably intact and one heavily modified.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge CA$ 8,000 or more
About $5,611

"You become the ghost" package

+ Your family becomes a main family in the game. You or one of your family members becomes a modeled 3D ghost encountered in the game and will be part of the story. (Whether the ghost is you or someone else in your family will depend on a lot of factors that determine suitability for the storyline — like age, for example.) The antagonist’s model and the family members will all appear in the credits.

Warning: You’ll need to provide plenty of photos to use in the game, and they will probably be retouched.